The Spoils of Babylon

Spoof comedy hasn't been this good in YEARS. I was really surprised with the smart and subtle sense of humor and the beauty of how it looks. Kristen Wiig is a comedy genius and each scene with her on it is pure gold.

This mini-series manages to make fun of the medium itself, and that's something I've been missing in comedy lately.

Probably the nearest neighbor (in both quality and style) for The Spoils of Babylon in television is the Police Squad! TV Series, and more than 20 years have passed since that show. And Spoils of Babylon takes things further than that. It's the next step.

Other than that, maybe the "Italian Spiderman" and "Danger 5" are the closest things being done, but is nice to see U.S. creatives getting back at this kind of humor.

Using the toolkit of those "adult dramas" of so long ago, this wonderful spoof is a joy to watch. Just check out "Written on the Wind" and "The Tarnished Angels" to see how "Spoils of Babylon" got it right.

An A-list cast, ultra-widescreen cinematography , a lush opening song and miniatures that are just so mini; all come together in a story line that is more line than story.

The premise that the original 22 hour production has been cut down to 6 30 minute episodes is supposed to allow the writers to get to the heart of the story. In truth, the just got rid of the boring parts.

Production values are solid. The acting hits the right tone without being to over the top.

Fun from beginning to end.

"The Spoils of Babylon" plays nicely off the sweeping tropes of sweeping television dramas of the sweeping past, mostly relying on silliness and the absurd--and, it has to be said, UK spoof series "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace". This is crystal clear from the episode introductions, supposedly looking back on one artist's tragically lost TV masterpiece, and from the low-budget opening title sequence and home-made establishing shots, which call to mind the "striking" approach to the obviously cardboard Darkplace Hospital.

There are some wobbles to the concept here. While Darkplace maintained the trappings of a pitiful budget throughout, Spoils enjoys some stunning location shoots that don't quite make sense beside money-saving scale-model inserts. There is a similar competence on the part of the imaginary actors, who rarely chew the scenery quite as much as they might, whereas Garth's collection of pals were every bit as terrible as the show he built around them. However, the basic parody of the genre works and raises at least a smile along the way.

This show is such a hidden gem. As far as I know this show never saw the light of mainstream entertainment, but it is something of a 'simplistic masterpiece' in spite of its low budget.

The Spoils of Babylon takes surrealist and satirical humour to the max. Production-wise, it is deliberately horrendous. The two main characters' have accents that change with every new scene, along with their hairstyles, which often match the ridiculousness of the characters' personalities. A few scenes even take place on a tiny-scaled set made up of props and toy cars.

These factors leave us with the impression that the show doesn't take itself seriously at all, which works favourably with its overall tone and comedic elements.

The humour itself is actually very high quality, and there are some one liners that will make you struggle to breathe. ("That tart has a name--Dicksy Melonsworth! Show some respect!") Kristen Wiig is her usual hilarious self, and who knew Tobey Maguire had such a natural capacity for comedy?

All in all, this show is an excellent way to kill a couple hours. It's nice and short, and is very easy to watch, owing to its great comedic writing & carefree tone.

This parody of old TV romance mini-series has been described as an extended SNL sketch, but I'd actually describe it as an extended Carol Burnett Show sketch in style. They did a lot of these sorts of parodies (most famously a Gone with the Wind sketch), and the broad humor and general silliness remind me more of Burnett than SNL.

What makes it more like SNL is that, like SNL, it's really not very funny. There are certainly cute moments, but there's a sophomoric quality to the humor that fails to resonate.

Also, while the cast is fairly talented, for most of them this isn't their wheelhouse. These are not Burnett/Conway/Lawrence-style actors, and the very broad writing isn't pushed through by the subtler performance style.

Humor is a very individual thing, and for some people this show is hilarious. For me, well, one user review said this show was a poor version of a series I'd never heard of, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, which also parodied an old, badly-made series, and I found the first episode of that on youtube. I watched just a few minutes of it and laughed more than during the entire first episode of Spoils (I was almost breathless during the handshake scene).

So basically the best thing that came out of watching this is I learned about something a lot funnier.